Brittany Wallman The Sun-Sentinel

November 26, 2010

Brittany Wallman
The Sun-Sentinel
200 E. Las Olas Blvd.
Ft. Lauderdale, FL 33301

RE: Ethics and the Public Arena – Some comments on your article about “fretting politicians”.

Ms. Wallman,

Damn Aristotle, that old dead Greek! Without his writings we wouldn’t be in this mess. He always sought a mythical “balance” in behavior be it public or private.

The Sun-Sentinel is neither competing with the Onion nor is it sponsoring any “modest proposals” for 5th trimester abortions. Since its Page 1 headline is about Black Friday I assume your reportage is a straight news story.

Thus the unintended consequence of your article is to cast the members of the Broward County Commission as nit-wits, poltroons, or grifters. In this assessment you are spot on.

Particular attention should be paid to Commissioner Lois Wexler

Consumed as she is by an internal raging debate over bottled water versus tap it would take a Dante to describe the ethical contortions she needs just to get through the day.

And this from a woman whose Page 1 picture and story on a Sunday Sun-Sentinel showed her dressed as a bag lady rooting through someone else’s garbage. The story was about where she lived versus the affidavit she signed attesting to the inconvenient fact that she lived somewhere else.

Since she is part of the Broward tradition, a tradition started by Robert Wexler and apostles Stacy Ritter and James Waldman, that says only the convenient laws have to be obeyed it might be wrong to single her out. [The law in question is the one that says you must live in the district that you represent] On the other hand, in a burst of out reaching multi-culturalism, she proclaims that she is more Catholic than the Pope.

I search in vain for the Latin word for chutzpah.

Either Samuel Johnson or Harry Truman said that if you heard too much noise in the Amen corner it was time to count the silverware.




James Madison had a one word answer when ever asked what was the most important thing to look for in a candidate for any public office,

“Character”

Who tells the Commissioners what is acceptable public behavior? What special gifts do they have that the Commissioners don’t? Quis custodes custodiet?

A good place to start would be for them to say, when they are sworn in, that they will not lie, cheat, or steal nor will they tolerate those among them who do.

I’ll send a copy of this to Commissioner Wexler but I am not sure of her address.





Kevin Smith